GAME REPORT

Gaziantep Late Push Seals Win

Dejan Borovnjak was instrumental in Royal Hali Gaziantep's undoing of the defending champions

Dejan Borovnjak collected 18 points and nine rebounds in leading Royal Hali Gaziantep to a 71-63 victory at home over Krasnye Krylia in Group B of the EuroChallenge.

Mutlu Akpinar added 13 points while Oliver Stevic and Serkan Erdogan both tallied 12 points as Gaziantep improved to 3-1 in the group.

Anton Ponkrashov and Julian Wright paced Krasnye Krylia with 12 points each as the Russian side saw their record drop to 2-2.

Gaziantep pulled ahead in the early going 16-9 before the guests fought their way back into the game, trailing just 20-19. The Gaziantep lead was 22-19 after one quarter.

After Gaziantep inched ahead 24-19, the guests went up 26-24 with a 7-0 run. The game remained close until a 7-0 Gaziantep surge to open a double-digit lead 42-32. And the hosts led 44-35 at the break.

Krasnye Krylia trimmed the deficit to 45-42 and it was 49-46 before a late push for Gaziantep to go ahead 57-48 after three quarters.

Gaziantep had an answer for every Krasnye Krylia basket in the fourth quarter as the Russians never got closer than nine points until the final seconds.

COACH QUOTES

Quotes Royal Hali Gaziantep vs. Krasnye Krylia Samara

Gaziantep Head Coach Jure Zdovc"First of all congratulations to my players and my assistants; they helped me in this difficult moment. To beat Krasnye Krylia twice is not that easy. It is really difficult. I know this team well; they are a very strong team, not easy to beat. For this reason, I am even happier because I knew what difficult game was waiting for us."

Gaziantep Player Ernest Bremer"We knew it would be a difficult game. With the new coach we had a new system on defence and offence. We haven't been all together for long but we were trying to play as good as we can."

Krasnye Krylia Head Coach Sergey Bazarevich"Congratulations to Royal Hali Gaziantep. Jure Zdovc and I, we played against each other for many years. I knew that it would not be easy. We played really bad; I'd say it was a complete disaster. We will analyse why we lost and we'll decide what to do."

Krasnye Krylia Player Aaron Miles"We have to play better ob offence and defence. Royal Hali Gaziantep controlled the tempo and everything in the game.We were soft and we didn‘t get the best selections on offence.The travel can't be an excuse because Royal Hali have the same schedule and they beat us in the first game after two overtimes."